Desires of the Heart: Confliction
by Lady Looper
Summary: You love your home and your friends, and would never think of betraying your loved ones... Yet when the moment arrives and you are faced with the choices of life and death, what will you choose? You keep telling yourself that it is a sacrifice for the greater good. But is it? Or are you giving in to the darkest desires of your heart? Sakura P.O.V


**DISCLAIMER: **I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto and its characters are created by Masashi Kishimoto. This is purely Fanfiction and had been written for entertainment purposes only and without any intention of infringing upon any copyright. Also, smoking/tobacco and consumption of alcohol is injurious for the health. Thanks. Happy reading!

**A/N:** Welcome to my first ItaSaku fic. I have been reading many of the awesome works of fellow authors and was deeply inspired to write about this couple; one of my favorites. I don't know if I have done enough but I hope you will find it a good read. Feedbacks are most appreciated.

**Desires of the Heart: Confliction**

**Chapter I**

Sakura looked around the small village, without a doubt a civilian village, on the outskirts of Konoha. The sentry at the village gates had cast her suspicious look when she had checked in. After showing the scroll in proof of her mission here, they had granted her permission to pass through, not bothering to hide their hostility.

It was reasonable, she thought. Shinobi were always running around breaking havoc in the lives of other shinobi and civilian alike. You couldn't blame them for wanting a bit of peace for a change.

Sakura laughed to herself as how it would be if the Rookie Nine had been civilians occurred to her out of the blue. Well, Naruto would always be Naruto. He probably would have been painting the Hokage Mountains as a prank either way. She herself wouldn't have changed much, just a few here and there. And Sasuke... Sakura closed her eyes and tried to stop her thoughts trailing off to the young Uchiha boy.

It had been five years that he had left them; left her lying on a cold bench. Since then they had turned over the entire five countries searching for him, wanting to bring him back with them, ready to welcome him back with open arms. But there was no sign of him anywhere. It made them question if he had ever even survived Orochimaru's evil intentions in the first place; it was no secret that Orochimaru wanted to take over the young Uchiha's body.

But he did survive; Sasori had told her where to find him as a reward for defeating him. And they had hurried across the nation, dreading that they would be too late. But no, Sasuke had been there, waiting for them. A glimpse of him was all they saw before he had disappeared, again. But in that one glimpse of him, they also had a glimpse of his new power for which he had once chosen to desert them.

Sakura had taken in every minute detail. He was taller. He had let his hair grow out over the years so that it framed his face. His features were sharp as ever, chiseled to perfection. He had more muscles than she could remember him having, a sign of his progress, giving his an admirable physique. He looked as composed as ever, his face wiped off into a blank slate of impassiveness to the point of being the perfect shinobi tool, as Sakura had read countless times in some rulebook or another. Not the slightest flicker of emotion crossed his features once as he gazed down at them. If he remembered them, or had the slightest regret about the path he had chosen, she couldn't tell as he didn't have any qualms about hiding it behind the cold exterior that he had carved under the tutelage of the snake Sanin.

But what alarmed her was the dawning that there was something darker, far more sinister lurking in his cold gaze than she could ever remember witnessing in those ebony orbs. At that moment, even before he had raised his katana against them, with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach she knew that the Sasuke they had once known had changed.

And then of course, Sasuke had disappeared once again. And Sakura found herself wanting that he would disappear from her heart altogether; it hurt her just to think about him. And it hurt her more to think that there was very little she could do to save the boy from his erroneous ways. But it didn't mean for a second that she would stop trying. When they returned to Konoha she had at once resumed her training to push herself to attain greater strength so that the next time she crossed paths with Sasuke she could bring him back home, even if she had to drag him all the way over to Konoha.

But more time flew by and there was still no news about Sasuke. And by the passing time, Sakura found her faith to be wavering each day. Maybe it was fated that they couldn't bring him back, maybe he was destined to lead the life of a rogue. She had teetered on the verge of indecision of whether to continue with their delusional wish to bring him back or to stop all this pointless nonsense and instead concentrate on her own ambitions. Then one day she had feebly made up her decision to move on with her life, hoping that by each passing day her determination that she lacked then would wax eventually. As to whether she had indeed achieved the willpower, she couldn't tell, but every time her heart tugged painfully in her chest when thinking of a lingering reminiscence of the dark boy she had once sworn to love, she knew that she had failed her resolve miserably.

Sakura sighed, and raised her eyes from the ground that she had been eyeing for quite some time now; fearing that the tap to her eyes that she had been very cautious to keep shut could open anytime now with the slightest temptation. Trying to pull together her inner turmoil, she looked about her.

It was still early in the morning. A very small number of people could be seen up and about getting ready for the start of another hectic day. There were a few merchants with carts loads of goods talking business deals in hushed tones with the traders. Quite a few stalls were already open with the vendors calling out to the people that passed. It was very different in every way from the ever bustling Konoha that she was used to.

For example the air was undoubtedly unlike the one her lungs were used to. Sakura sniffed in the fresh air. It was a civilian village and therefore, the air was free of many the pollutions in the air of a shinobi village like she was used to. The change in the air was certainly a welcomed one as she, closing her eyes, inhaled a few more times. It smelled of fresh jasmines.

And then another smell invaded her nose. Snapping open her eyes, she sniffed the air harder. A moment later she followed the faint scent that was wafting to her nose and was lead directly to a vendor selling dumplings. Sakura's eyes brightened instantly as she rushed up to the stall.

The man behind the stall had been calling out to the passerby while cooking the first batch of dumplings of the day. He was taken aback when the pink haired girl suddenly rushed up to him.

"Uh... welcome young lady. What can I get you this wonderful morning?" he asked.

Sakura looked around to examine the different types of dumplings and ordered as soon as her eyes fell upon the syrup-coated anko dumplings. Smiling at the look of anticipation on the girl's face the vendor quickly prepared her some.

Sakura dug in as soon as the vendor placed the plate in front of her. It has been a long time since she had had the chance to taste her favorite food. Hell, she was sure that the only flavor that she had had in her mouth was that of ramen in the last few months upon her buoyant teammate's insistence. Smacking her lips and devouring the sweet taste it left on her lips, Sakura felt satisfied in a way that she had not in a while. And certainly her spirits had also lifted. Broken from her bubble, she recalled her mission a little huffily, but made the payment without any delay.

She rose and turned away only to realize it would be easier if she asked for directions first rather than roaming around the land like a stray. Directions made it much easier and were more efficient in time management. Turning back to the dumpling vendor, she asked politely, "Ano, Oji-san. Could you give me the direction towards the Daimyo's house?"

The man smiled good naturedly before pointing her to the general direction to the north. "It's the huge yellow building. You can't miss it."

Thanking him, Sakura turned away and decided to walk casually instead of sprinting, lest she made the civilians uncomfortable since she figured they were not used to shinobi in the first place.

An hour later Sakura stood on the threshold of the gigantic yellow building, veins popping out of her forehead as she desperately tried to keep her clam. For the ten minutes she had been trying to persuade the thick headed guards that she had indeed been summoned by the Daimyo. But they wouldn't hear a word of it.

"I am telling you the Daimyo requested for me himself. I have the official documents," she said with a slight hint of annoyance to her voice as she struggled to maintain her professionalism.

"Miss, please leave the threshold or else we will be forced to remove you."

Sakura's eyes twitched in extreme annoyance, she would really love to see them try. Biting back her retort, she insisted, "I have the documents." And began to take out the scroll from her small back-pack.

"What is all this commotion about so early in the morning?" a gruff voice sounded. Sakura looked up to see a tall hairy man strolling up to them; undoubtedly from his posture she could tell he was the head of security. Before the pestering guards could start talking, Sakura bowed politely as the man came to a halt right before her, giving her a wary look from head to toe.

"Kunoichi-san," he nodded at her, "How can I help you?"

She introduced herself, "I am Haruno Sakura, medic from Konoha. I am here on the request of your Daimyo."

The man frowned, "What is this nonsense? We are aware of no such requests."

"Pardon?" Sakura was now lost. What the hell? "I have the mission documents right here with me, if you would kindly take a look."

The pink haired kunoichi presented the scroll to the man whose eyes darted over the document in concentration. At last he closed it and handed it back to her and shook his head, his eyes closed.

"You must have been misinformed. The Daimyo is in perfect condition, there has been no such request for any medic."

Disbelief coursed through her, "Excuse me? The details clearly say otherwise. It even has the seal of your Daimyo. He even specifically asked for my assistance..."

The man cleared his throat and cut her off, "It is all a simple misunderstanding, I pressume."

"But take a look at the seal! It's the Daimyo's official seal isn't it?" Sakura exclaimed as she began to feel aggravation creep up into her system.

The man's eyes hardened and he said in a tone of finality, "Please Haruno-san. We have not made any such requests. You have clearly made a mistake. Pray leave the threshold before we are forced to remove you off it."

Before the words even registered in her head, she found the towering iron doors slam shut on her face as she stood there blinking for a couple of seconds. What the hell? Her inner rage and Sakura herself felt the building desire to tear down some trees to burn the frustration coursing through her.

Deciding that it was not intelligent to linger around the threshold any longer, lest the changed their mind and captured her for interrogating, Sakura quickly moved away until she was in the town centre. Only then she slowed her pace and began thinking.

She distinctly recalled the memory of Tsunade assigning her to the mission.

_**Flashback**__: _

_**Sakura entered the cozily furnished Hokage Office, bowing humbly to the blonde who looked up from the never-ending paper work.**_

"_**Tsunade-shishou," she greeted.**_

"_**Ah, Sakura," she nodded and shuffled some papers around before picking up a scroll and throwing it at her.**_

_**Sakura caught it effortlessly and eyed it for a moment. Tsunade explained, "It's a short mission in a civilian village just at the outskirts of Konoha. Apparently the Daimyo living there is suffering from ill-health and has requested for medical expertise."**_

_**Nodding in comprehension, the pink haired girl broke the seal and regarded the words, "He has specifically requested for me?" She couldn't help but be surprised. **_

_**Tsunade nodded, a smirk appearing on her painted lips, "Sakura, you give yourself no credit. You have become quite the popular figure in the medical field these recent years."**_

_**Sakura bit her lips and smiled in appreciation, "All because of you, shishou."**_

_**Tsunade waved her hand dismissively, "Don't be ridiculous. You are a very talented kunoichi, I'm only glad to have found you to give the world one more proficient medic."**_

_**Tsunade didn't have to tell her the importance of medics in the world where danger lurked at every corner. She just smiled.**_

"_**So you leave tonight and can be expected to arrive there by early tomorrow morning as the distance is not very stretched. This is a solo mission since the risks are very limited, nothing that you can't take care of, of course. However, you are to return as quickly as possible since your support in the hospital is crucial. Understood?"**_

_**Sakura nodded, "Hai."**_

_**She was just about to turn away when Tsunade called her, "Oh. And Sakura, I have arranged a delegation for a very rare herb. An acquaintance of mine, Junko, will be there will the package. She has been directed to expect you at the village center at noon of the day of your arrival. Please deliver them safely."**_

"_**Hai."**_

"_**And Sakura?" The pink haired woman looked at her mentor, whose features softened, "Be safe."**_

_**She smiled at her mentor and assured her, "Don't worry, shishou."**_

_**The Godaime Hokage only sighed.**_

_**End of Flashback.**_

So why would the guards lie to her and deny her entrance? What did they have to prove by summoning her all these way only to slam the door on her face? They had claimed that the Daimyo was not sick and they had definitely not requested her presence... And that she has been misinformed... But Sakura was as sure as hell the document was authentic; it had the Daimyo's personal seal on it as proof! So why the hell would the guards insist otherwise?

Sakura's eyes widened, unless indeed the information has been tampered with! Now that Sakura thought about it, it did seem a little funny that the Daimyo living in a civilian village would have heard of her and request for her specifically. Something smelled fishy.

Well, at least they could have assisted her in finding more about this 'misinformation'. Surely it bothered them to see that someone had access to their official seal? Unless they too had a hand in it, her eyes narrowed at the thought and she felt the sudden urge to knock down their doors which they had so rudely closed on her face and demand what exactly was going on here.

She heaved a dark sigh, and took a few breathes to calm herself. Their uncooperative behavior could probably be explained by their distrust of shinobi in general. She had noticed how wary the gate sentries were of her and how reluctant they had been to let her enter their territory.

So what exactly was going on here?

Sakura had just decided on sending a note back to Konoha immediately informing the Hokage of the circumstances, when she felt a presence behind her. Startled, she quickly whirled around, only to find a wispy elderly woman staring at her, giving her a calculating gaze.

"Junko-san?" Sakura asked uncertainly. The woman snapped her eyes back to meet her gaze and after sometime had passed, she nodded curtly.

Sakura sighed in relief. At least not the whole mission was a ruse. Smiling politely at the woman she introduced herself, "I am Haruno Sakura, Tsunade shishou's apprentice."

The woman only nodded. Sakura looked her over for any signs of the package, but found none. She asked then, "Uh... Junko-san, where is the package?"

Junko didn't say anything as she whirled around and began walking, motioning her to follow her. Sakura noticed that the woman's movements were a bit agile for a woman of her age. She must have been a kunoichi, she thought, and didn't pay much heed to it.

They had been walking for quite some time now and it wasn't until Junko had led her away from the town center and into the forest that Sakura began to fidget. Glancing around the thick foliage, Sakura said nervously, "Uh, Junko-san? Where exactly are we going?"

The woman made no reply.

Biting back her impatience at the woman's conduct and her lack of vocalizations, Sakura continued trailing after her while thinking of sending a message back to Konoha at the first chance she found. She wondered when the chance would present itself...

"Junko-san, how much further do we need to go?" This time Sakura couldn't help the impatience that seeped into her voice. The woman probably noted it too, because she suddenly came to a halt making Sakura bump into her.

"Ano, gomen," she apologized to the elderly woman, rubbing her head sheepishly. But the woman made no move instead spoke for the first time.

"I see you are becoming impatient, kunoichi," there was an icy edge to the old woman's voice and Sakura noted that everything in her voice and words sounded very wrong. She tensed visibly.

"Well then, I will get to down to business."

Before Sakura could take a step back in apprehension, she suddenly found herself pressed against something hard, with a huge sword pushed under her delicate throat. She resisted the urge to gulp, in fear that the slight movement could result to her neck being slit.

"Are you sure she is the one?" the presence behind her asked Junko in his deep voice who merely nodded. Her captor sniggered and didn't sound at all convinced; whatever he had meant by it.

"Who are you?" she glared at the woman posed as 'Junko' who had finally turned around and was staring at her just as intensely.

"Impatient are we, Pinky?" the man behind her chuckled but Sakura could hardly find anything funny about all these.

She growled at the intended nickname but only glared given her restraints, "I asked, who are you?"

There was a pause and then the man pressing the sword against her throat chuckled darkly as 'Junko' raised her finger to perform the necessary seal and let her appearance falter. Sakura could only suck in a gasp, because of all the things that she expected; she never expected it to be Akatsuki, much less Uchiha Itachi.

"Akatsuki," she grounded out in disgust as silent horror swept over her. That must mean that the one trapping her was none other than Hoshigaki Kisame of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist. She was so dead.

The Uchiha took a few steps forward, his steps slow and sure. Everything fell into a lapse of silence as a bone-chilling breeze picked up around them. His darks locks blew against his pale cheeks as he continued walking towards her.

As he came nearer, she could see his blank face that looked at hers from just above that wide high collar. There was only coldness in his gaze, like he was contemplating how easy it would be to kill rather than wasting time in a pointless fight. There'd been many a times she had felt fear, many a times she had bit it back, but this time was so much worse. He just looked at her, cold, impassive, blank, his pinwheel eyes boring into her very soul. She felt her throat go dry.

Sakura was more than surprised that she wasn't dead on her feet yet, or worse, that she hadn't been pulled into the dark abyss of the Mangekyou. She tore off her gaze from his alluring ones and struggled to keep her eyes glued to the collar of his cloak. She wasn't ignorant of the wonders of the Sharringan, much less the one as dangerous as the one in Itachi's possession.

Vaguely, she wondered if it was them who had tampered with the mission information. The mere thought alarmed her. The compulsion to ask him was playing in her thoughts, but the sword pressed to her neck so tightly made her resist. Kisame's hand was clamped on the back of her neck as the cold steel covered under the white bindings were pushed further up across the plane of her throat.

At length she made up her mind. She was dead either way; she had to get as much information as she could. So she gathered every ounce of courage within her, praying to Kami that this was all just some kind of a bad dream, and asked, "Where is the _real_ Junko-san?" She hoped that her voice hadn't trembled like her insides were.

"She has not been harmed, you need not to be worried," Itachi's voice was as monotonous as she imagined it to be.

It barely said of the old lady's fate. But Sakura bit her lips from asking any further, not wishing to push her luck. She was hanging on a thread as it was. Besides the Akatsuki didn't have any reason to lie about the safety of an old woman; if they had disposed of her, they would have just as coldly informed her of it.

So she asked the next important thing, trying desperately to keep a cool ground, "What do you want from me?"

Sakura could see by the movement of his chin, that Itachi had cocked his head, "Would you make it any easier if we made our motives clear to you?" He sounded... amused.

Sakura shook the ridiculous notion of Itachi being amused out of her head; she doubted he was capable of such a feat.

Sakura could already guess what they could want from her. They were in charge of capturing the Kyuubi; they merely wanted to take her hostage in hopes of luring out Naruto, which would definitely succeed if Sakura knew the first thing about Naruto. Thinking about it made her sick to her stomach.

Or, it occurred to her, that they had simply stumbled upon her and thought her to be a good kill. She was disgusted at the thought.

Instead she willed herself to keep a cool head, panicking would not get her anywhere. But it was a lot easier said than done. Sakura cursed herself for being careless enough to get in this situation in the first place. She knew very well that she had no chance of involving them in combat; much less sport the idea of winning. Her only option was escaping as soon and as swiftly as possible. Which was also easier said than done.

She tried to concentrate more on ways to get out of Kisame's death grip rather than letting her attention get caught by the way Itachi's lips were pressed in a single impassive line that could pass for his mouth, for now her eyes were drawn to his lips.

Slapping herself mentally, she got to her plan to escape. She thought of drawing her chakra to her hands and pushing away the huge sword pressed against her, realizing that she would need as much strength her chakra enhanced fists could muster to overcome the shark man's overwhelming muscle power. Reaching for her chakra, she found that she could find only a temperate amount, not her full reserve that she had cared to maintain for her supposed healing assignment. She was immediately alarmed.

Kisame laughed, understanding her intention, "Surprise, surprise, Pinky."

He had bloody drained her chakra! Sakura shrieked in frustration, and used all her strength to step on his foot, never imagining in her wildest dream that it would _actually_ work. The ground too had broken apart under the brute force of her kick, splattering them with dirt.

She could only blink when Kisame cursed and moved away from her with the stinging foot. He glared at her. Not wasting the chance, as weird as it was, Sakura immediately moved out of his reach.

Out of the corners of her eyes she noted that Itachi made no move to interfere, instead opting to watch the battle that unfolded between Kisame and her; which was mostly verbal. She was thankful, because one Akatsuki on her plate was too much on her plate, she didn't need to add an Uchiha Itachi to it too.

Cursing her loudly, Kisame took a good grip on his gigantic sword and made a dash at her. Sakura barely had the time to swing her head backwards as the sword slashed through the air where her head been a moment ago, before Kisame landed a punch on her stomach. Sakura bended into double in pain, before disappearing with a poof.

"Shannaro!" Sakura broke out from the ground where she had hidden herself in the brief moment, aiming a punch on his face, only to be dodged as he vanished from her line of sight altogether. Sakura panicked for a slight moment and then realized that he would most definitely be coming at her from behind. She whirled around just in time to duck from his huge fist that would have knocked her out cold should it have landed its mark.

Before Kisame could recover from the momentum of the punch, Sakura crouched low and used her feet to make a sweeping kick at him. But Kisame caught her ankle and twisted it making her scream in pain. As Kisame smirked in crude satisfaction, Sakura, despite the throbbing pain on her ankle that was still caught in Kisame's monstrous grip, bended her knee to get closer to him and was successful in landing a chakra enhanced punch on the face of the disheveled Mist-nin making him let go of his grip on her ankle as he flew across the clearing and crashed into a tree.

Dropping on the ground she quickly charged her chakra laden hand through her ankle, relieving it off its pain. She looked up at the scene before her. Kisame was still slouched against the tree which had been knocked over making a grunting noise.

Before the smoke could clear however, Sakura's eyes widened as she realized Itachi had flickered out of sight and even less than a second later reappeared behind her. She whipped around, sending a barrage of poisoned senbon at him, which he dodged without even blinking once of course.

Sakura reached for her chakra and found a diminishing flicker of energy and then she was aware of Itachi swiftly appearing in front on her. In spite of her determination to do otherwise, she made the one fatal mistake of taking a look into his eyes... The result was instantaneous as she felt herself being sucked into his spinning blood red eyes and felt her knee buckle as she stumbled into Itachi in the loss of her balance.

At the verge of unconsciousness, Sakura subconsciously made the last attempt her diminished chakra would allow. Extending the last of her healing chakra from her fingertips, she plunged the scalpel into him. As expected of him, he moved out of the way swiftly, but a second too late because her scalpel cut through the tendons of his right hand before the green concentration of energy flickered out of existence.

The triumph of hitting him was the last thought her head could conjure among the overwhelming pain that hit her brain in waves, and then darkness overcame her, leaving her in the mercy of Uchiha Itachi.

**A/N:** I am really fond of this pairing for some reason, probably because the plots can be twisted and turned and experimented on. Hehe. So yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to do here. I have this story all planned out in my head but have no idea how it will actually turn out, mostly because I tend to lose interest in stuffs fairly quickly. I think you people out there will need to encourage me loads to keep me on the toe to actually finish the story. I just hope no writer's block hits me! That will be a major problem for you and me both; I really don't like not finishing my works.

Look at me babbling away! I will stop here. Meanwhile, as I struggle to finish the next chapter, if you can please do leave a review. And stay tuned for the next installment, swear it won't take long! Thanks.


End file.
